Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.
Thousands of Australians gathered at vigils held across the country last night to pay their respects to Kumanjayi Little Baby, a five-year-old Alice Springs girl whose body was found a week ago on the outskirts of town.
At the local vigil, Leanne Liddle, the executive director of cultural reform at NT Police, read a statement on behalf of the little girl’s mother.
Leanne Liddle read a statement on behalf of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s mother at the Alice Springs vigil. (ABC News)
“She wants this message to be heard across all the vigils happening across Australia in honour of her little daughter, Kumanjayi Little Baby,” Ms Liddle said.
The statement was read last night as follows:
As a Christian, I would like to thank the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for gifting me with a beautiful baby girl and for choosing me to be her mum and for the precious time that I had as her mother here on earth.
Your support, prayers and love have provided me with great comfort at this difficult time. Thank you.
I want you all to know that my heart is broken into a million pieces. And I want you to know that I am having trouble knowing how I can repair it and how I can live without my little baby.
My baby was special to me, to our family.
She loved cuddling puppies. She loved playing games on my phone. She loved watching Bluey and Masha and the Bear.
She loved listening to Rose and Bruno Mars, APT, and Golden by K-Pop Demon Hunters. And she loved playing Minecraft with her big brother. When she was a little baby, she would smile when she watched Cocomelon.
She was my little princess. My princess who loved the colour pink. She also loved all the colours of the rainbow. And when she was older, she loved going to kindy.
For all these reasons, I ask that her short life not be used by politicians for reasons that do not honour and respect her.
It is wrong for people to use my pain and sorrow from my loss to cause violence or damage to property or cause injury to police or paramedics like they did last week in Alice Springs.
We must remember that it was the police and other first responders who searched hard to find my little baby.
Instead, I want my little baby to be remembered as a pretty girl in pink. A little girl who was truly loved by me, Ramsiah and her family.
I ask that everyone let me, Ramsiah, our family and the nation grieve without any judgement.
I ask that we remember her for who she was, a beautiful little baby.
Importantly, I want to say thank you, Chief Minister and to the Northern Territory Police Force. Thank you to your Aboriginal liaison officers and to all the volunteers and the organisations who helped and supported and searched day and night for my baby girl.
I want to thank the Australian people for grieving with me, who are sharing and understanding my pain and heartbreak alongside me and my son Ramsiah and my wider family.
I am aware that my tragedy has touched people outside of Australia and I say thank you.
I ask as I move through my grief, let’s look up to the night sky and find the brightest star where Kumanjayi Little Baby is now in heaven.
And I ask that everyone to take care of your little ones.
With love from me and my son Ramsiah, God bless you all.
The body of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby was found last week outside Old Timers town camp. (Supplied: NT Police)
Extended family speak at Katherine vigil
A crowd also gathered in the town of Katherine to light candles in honour of Kumanjayi Little Baby.
Herbert Mosquito, an uncle to the five-year-old girl, said he wanted to “thank the people of Katherine and Kalano for coming together, it has really touched my heart”.
Kumanjayi Little Baby’s uncle Herbert Mosquito thanked people who attended the memorial in Katherine. (ABC News: James Elton)
“All my condolences goes to all my family back in Alice Springs, all my in-laws and families there in Hidden Valley sorry camp,” Mr Mosquito said.
“Good crowd came and shake hands and talk to us, we all held our candles up high for the remembrance of little Kumanjayi.”
People in Katherine gathered to remember Kumanjayi Little Baby. (ABC News: James Elton)
Another family member, Miranda Booth, said she remembered the little girl as being a “happy person who loved playing around so much”.
“I’ll forever remember her as a happy little child and I’ll forever remember her laughter,” she said.
“I miss everything about her.”Collective grieving
Grief and trauma specialist Rachel Neary, who has more than 15 years’ experience and is based in Central Australia said the vigils demonstrated a moment of “collective grief”.
“I think what we’re seeing is a lot of people feeling they have a connections with this story,” Ms Neary said.
“That’s whether they know the family personally, whether they have worked with family or extended family members, whether they were involved in the search.”
The Central Australian Women’s Aboriginal Choir sang at the Alice Springs vigil. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)
Ms Neary said the vigils should be about “bearing witness to each other’s sadness, each other’s feelings” and processing the tragedy of the last week.
“I think we have a town right now that is feeling really confused and really sad, and if you walk around Mparntwe / Alice Springs right now it feels quiet, it feels like a ghost town, it feels like we’re all in sorry [business],” she said.
Ms Neary also said she felt a “deficit story” was being told about Alice Springs, and this missed the fact of how the community had come together.
More than a thousand people gathered at the vigil held in Alice Springs. (ABC News: Xavier Martin )
“Those people who have worked in town camps and worked with Aboriginal families and communities know that actually what’s happening here is a story of strength,” she said.
“A story of people coming together, and a people being really generous with each other.”